Student Review Guide
Geoscience Explorations Semester A Examination 2014-2015
(Honors and On-Level)
Montgomery County Public Schools
Test Description
Length: 2 hours
Format: Students will select three (3) of four (4) writing prompts and complete a brief
constructed response for each. (Honors exam requires students to answer one assigned
writing prompt, and select two more of three writing prompts).
Teacher Guidance on Use of Sample Writing Prompts
Sample writing prompts are provided to encourage appropriate student collaboration and review
of concepts in preparation for the exam. Although the sample writing prompts address the same
concepts as the actual exam prompts, they are not identical to the exam prompts. Each actual
exam prompt includes one of the NGSS Science and Engineering Practices: for example, data is
provided within one of the exam prompts, and students are asked to analyze and interpret the
data as part of their BCR response.

What is the purpose of the sample writing prompts?
In problem-based learning, students sometimes have difficulty applying learning to new
situations since they work with one scenario/RFP throughout the unit. The writing prompts
provide alternative real world examples related to the same content indicators.
The final exam prompts require students to apply their learning to a new scenario. The
sample writing prompts within this student review are designed to serve as preparation for
the final exam. Although these writing prompts are similar to the types of questions that will
be asked on the final exam, they are not representative of the amount of information asked
per prompt.

How should teachers use the sample writing prompts?
The sample writing prompts provided in this student review are not identical to the actual
exam prompts. For this reason, teachers may help students to construct responses to sample
writing prompts. The sample prompts may be used as a formative assessment, either to grade
students on their progress or as tool for adjusting instruction, or as an end of unit summative
assessment.
When teachers grade student work on sample writing prompts, they should assess the
understanding demonstrated by the student. Although students need to fully, clearly and
accurately express their ideas, they should not be assessed on grammar or punctuation.
Students should be encouraged to express ideas in multiple ways including pictures, graphs,
web diagrams, tables, etc.
Geoscience Explorations Student Review Semester A
Montgomery County Public Schools 2014

When should teachers use sample writing prompts?
The sample writing prompts are not designed to go with any particular day of instruction, but
rather are supplemental for teachers’ choice to use as and when appropriate. It is not
intended that every writing prompt and assessment probe is used. It is up to the teacher’s
discretion on when and how to use these resources.
Some examples of using the prompts include using them for group work at the end of a unit,
for homework after project presentations, or for classwork during final exam review.

What are some ways to support students to fully demonstrate their learning on these types
of assessment items?
It is important to help students to understand how to answer the types of questions included
within sample writing prompts. There are many ways to support students in this process,
including:
-
Question analysis techniques, such as highlighting or underlining
Teacher think-aloud while reading prompts
Use of graphic organizers to organize ideas prior to writing
Pre-writing brainstorming discourse
Discourse between drafts for ideas on enhancement
Peer reviewing using plus/delta feedback
Multiple drafts based on peer and teacher feedback
Use of graphics to support answers
Sample Writing Prompts
Sample Writing Prompt #1: Planetary Formation (Honors and On-Level)
Geologic investigations reveal that Earth is made of layers, like an onion or an egg: an inner
core, outer core, mantle and crust. Each layer has different materials and processes. Use your
knowledge of Earth’s structure, composition and processes to construct an argument for how
Earth’s interior layers may have formed, and how the layers contribute to Earth processes. (Be
sure to include a discussion of how Earth’s interior processes and layers affect surface
processes).
Sample Writing Prompt #2: Planetary Surfaces (On-Level only)
When astronauts view Earth from space, they observe many different planetary surface features,
including volcanoes and river valleys. From these features, scientists can infer properties of
Earth systems (for example, the solid Earth and atmosphere). Analyze major features of Earth’s
surface, and provide examples of how they are formed or changed by different Earth systems.
(Be sure to include a discussion of how the properties of water may help to create some of the
features, and how the features may relate to conditions supporting life).
Geoscience Explorations Student Review Semester A
Montgomery County Public Schools 2014
Sample Writing Prompt #3: Planetary Orbits (Honors and On-Level)
Scientists are finding hundreds of other solar systems. We can make predictions about planets
within the distant systems based on observable features of the planets and the star, including
masses and distances between the objects. Develop (draw) an annotated model of a solar system
and use it to describe gravitational forces and planetary orbits within the system. (Be sure to
compare and contrast planetary orbits, planets’ speeds within their orbits, and factors that affect
planetary orbits and gravity).
Sample Writing Prompt #4: Fossilization Processes (Honors and On-Level)
In recent years, scientists have been able to extract and analyze DNA from frozen remains of
woolly mammoths that lived thousands of years ago. This success has led others to hope for
finding DNA within fossil dinosaurs that lived millions of years ago. Construct an argument to
support or refute the likelihood of finding DNA within fossil dinosaurs. (Be sure to include a
discussion of Earth surface materials and processes that are involved in the formation of fossils).
Sample Writing Prompt #5: Citizen Science in Space (Honors only):
Your honors extension for this course may have focused on a book with a science/technology
theme, a research question, a lab investigation, or a citizen science project. All of these options
involve science and engineering practices (for example, asking questions, planning and carrying
out investigations, analyzing and interpreting results, constructing explanations, and
communicating information).
Imagine that you are a future scientist living in a space colony. Identify a testable question for
an investigation in space, and design a citizen science investigation to test that question. (A
citizen science project allows the public to collect or analyze data).
.
Geoscience Explorations Student Review Semester A
Montgomery County Public Schools 2014
NGSS Performance Expectations and Disciplinary Core Ideas
(Each writing prompt is aligned to NGSS Performance Expectations. Students earn credit by
demonstrating their understanding of Disciplinary Core Ideas in the context of Science and Engineering
Practices, and applying Cross-Cutting Concepts within their responses).
Unit 1: Planetary Prospecting
HS-ESS1-1
Develop a model based on evidence to illustrate the life span of the sun and the role of nuclear fusion in the
sun’s core to release energy in the form of radiation.
Disciplinary Core Idea:
ESS1.A: The Universe and its Stars
The star called the Sun is changing and will burn out over a life span of approximately 10 billion years.
HS-ESS1-2.
Construct an explanation of the Big Bang theory based on astronomical evidence of light spectra, motion of
distant galaxies, and composition of matter in the universe.
Disciplinary Core Idea:
ESS1.A: The Universe and its Stars
The study of stars’ light spectra and brightness is used to identify compositional elements of stars, their
movements, and their distances from Earth.
The Big Bang theory is supported by observations of distant galaxies receding from our own, of the
measured composition of stars and non-stellar gasses, and of the maps of spectra of the primordial radiation
(cosmic microwave background) that still fills the universe.
Other than the hydrogen and helium formed at the time of the Big Bang, nuclear fusion within stars
produces all atomic nuclei lighter than and including iron, and the process releases electromagnetic energy.
Heavier elements are produced when certain massive stars achieve a supernova stage and explode.
HS-ESS1-3.
Communicate scientific ideas about the way stars, over their life cycle, produce elements.
Disciplinary Core Idea:
ESS1.A: The Universe and its Stars
The study of stars’ light spectra and brightness is used to identify compositional elements of stars, their
movements, and their distances from Earth.
Other than the hydrogen and helium formed at the time of the Big Bang, nuclear fusion within stars
produces all atomic nuclei lighter than and including iron, and the process releases electromagnetic energy.
Heavier elements are produced when certain massive stars achieve a supernova stage and explode.
HS-ESS1-4.
Use mathematical or computational representations to predict the motion of orbiting objects in the solar
system.
Disciplinary Core Idea:
ESS1.B: Earth and the Solar System
Kepler’s Laws describe common features of the motions of orbiting objects, including their elliptical paths
around the Sun. Orbits may change due to the gravitational effect from, or collisions with, other in the
solar system.
HS-ESS1-6.
Apply scientific reasoning and evidence from ancient Earth materials, meteorites, and other planetary
surfaces to construct an account of Earth’s formation and early history.
Geoscience Explorations Student Review Semester A
Montgomery County Public Schools 2014
Disciplinary Core Idea:
ESS1.C: The History of Planet Earth
Although active geologic processes, such as plate tectonics and erosion, have destroyed or altered most of
the very early rock record on earth, other objects in the solar system, such as lunar rocks, asteroids, and
meteorites, have changed little over billions of years. Studying these objects can provide information about
Earth’s formation and early history.
HS-ESS2-2.
Analyze geoscience data to make the claim that one change to Earth's surface can create feedbacks that cause
changes to other Earth systems.
Disciplinary Core Ideas:
ESS12.A: Earth Materials and Systems
Earth’s systems, being dynamic and interacting, cause feedback effects that can increase or decrease the
original changes.
ESS2.D: Weather and Climate
The foundation for Earth’s global climate systems is the electromagnetic radiation from the Sun, as well as
its reflection, absorption, storage, and redistribution among the atmosphere, ocean, and land systems, and
this energy’s re-radiation into space.
HS-ESS2-3.
Develop a model based on evidence of Earth’s interior to describe the cycling of matter by thermal
convection.
Disciplinary Core Ideas:
ESS2.A: Earth Materials and Systems
Evidence from deep probes and seismic waves, reconstructions of historical changes in Earth’s surface and
its magnetic field, and an understanding of physical and chemical processes lead to a model of Earth with a
hot but solid inner core, a liquid outer core, and a solid mantle and crust. Motion of the mantle and its
plates occur primarily though thermal convection, which involves the cycling of matter due to the outward
flow of energy from Earth’s interior and gravitational movement of denser materials toward the interior.
ESS2.B: Plate Tectonics and Large-Scale System Interactions
The radioactive decay of unstable isotopes continually generates new energy within Earth’s crust and
mantle, providing the primary source of the heat that drives mantle convection. Plate tectonics can be
viewed as the surface expression of mantle convection.
HS-ESS3-1.
Construct an explanation based on evidence for how the availability of natural resources, occurrence of
natural hazards, and changes in climate have influenced human activity.
Disciplinary Core Ideas:
ESS3.A: Natural Resources
Resource availability has guided the development of human society.
ESS3.B: Natural Hazards
Natural hazards and other geologic events have shaped the course of human history; they have significantly
altered the sizes of human populations and have driven human migrations.
Unit 2: Fossil Reconstruction
HS-ESS2-2.
Analyze geoscience data to make the claim that one change to Earth's surface can create feedbacks that cause
changes to other Earth systems.
Disciplinary Core Ideas:
ESS12.A: Earth Materials and Systems
Geoscience Explorations Student Review Semester A
Montgomery County Public Schools 2014
Earth’s systems, being dynamic and interacting, cause feedback effects that can increase or decrease the
original changes.
ESS12.D: Weather and Climate
The foundation for Earth’s global climate systems is the electromagnetic radiation from the Sun, as well as
its reflection, absorption, storage, and redistribution among the atmosphere, ocean, and land systems, and
this energy’s re-radiation into space.
HS-ESS2-4.
Use a model to describe how variations in the flow of energy into and out of Earth’s systems result in changes
in climate.
Disciplinary Core Ideas:
ESS1.B: Earth and the Solar System
Cyclical changes in the shape of Earth’s orbit around the Sun, together with changes in the tilt of the
planet’s axis of rotation, both occurring over hundreds of thousands of years, have altered the intensity and
distribution of sunlight falling on earth. These phenomena cause a cycle of ice ages and other gradual
climate changes. (secondary)
ESS2.A: Earth Materials and Systems
The geologic record shows that changes to global and regional climate can be caused by interactions among
changes in the Sun’s energy output or Earth’s orbit, tectonic events, ocean circulation, volcanic activity,
glaciers, vegetation, and human activities. These changes can occur on a variety of timescales from sudden
(e.g., volcanic ash clouds) to intermediate (ice age) to very long-term tectonic cycles.
ESS2.D: Weather and Climate
The foundation for earth’s global climate systems is the electromagnetic radiation from the Sun, as well as
its reflection, absorption, storage, and re-distribution among the atmosphere, ocean and land systems and
this energy’s re-radiation into space.
Changes in the atmosphere due to human activity have increased carbon dioxide concentrations and thus
affect climate.
HS-ESS2-5.
Plan and conduct an investigation of the properties of water and its effects on Earth materials and surface
processes.
Disciplinary Core Idea:
ESS2.C: The Roles of Water in Earth’s Surface Properties
The abundance of liquid water on Earth’s surface and its unique combination of physical and chemical
properties are central to the planet’s dynamics. These properties include water’s exceptional capacity to
absorb, store, and release large amounts of energy, transit sunlight, expand upon freezing, dissolve and
transport materials, and lower the viscosities and melting points of rocks.
HS-ESS2-6.
Develop a quantitative model to describe the cycling of carbon among the hydrosphere, atmosphere,
geosphere, and biosphere.
Disciplinary Core Idea:
ESS2.D: Weather and Climate
Gradual atmospheric changes were due to plants and other organisms that captured carbon dioxide and
released oxygen.
Changes in the atmosphere due to human activity have increased carbon dioxide concentrations and thus
affect climate.
HS-ESS2-7.
Construct an argument based on evidence about the simultaneous coevolution of Earth's systems and life on
Earth.
Disciplinary Core Idea:
ESS2.E: Biogeology
Geoscience Explorations Student Review Semester A
Montgomery County Public Schools 2014
The many dynamic and delicate feedbacks between the biosphere and other Earth systems cause a continual
co-evolution of Earth’s and the life that exists on it.
Additional indicator:
HS-LS4-1. Communicate scientific information that common ancestry and biological evolution are supported
by multiple lines of evidence.
Disciplinary Core Idea:
LS4.A Evidence of Common Ancestry and Diversity
The fossil record documents the existence, diversity, extinction and change of many life forms and their
environments through Earth’s history.
Geoscience Explorations Student Review Semester A
Montgomery County Public Schools 2014
NGSS Science and Engineering Practices and Cross-Cutting Concepts
(Students earn credit by demonstrating their understanding of Disciplinary Core Ideas in the context of
Science and Engineering Practices, and applying Cross-Cutting Concepts within their responses).
NGSS Science and Engineering Practices:
1. Asking questions (for science) and defining problems (for engineering)
2. Developing and using models
3. Planning and carrying out investigations
4. Analyzing and interpreting data
5. Using mathematics and computational thinking
6. Constructing explanations (for science) and designing solutions (for engineering)
7. Engaging in argument from evidence
8. Obtaining, evaluating and communicating evidence
NGSS Cross-Cutting Concepts:
1. Patterns
2. Cause and effect: Mechanism and explanation
3. Scale, proportion and quantity
4. Systems and system models
5. Energy and matter: Flows, cycles and conservation
6. Structure and function
7. Stability and change
Geoscience Explorations Student Review Semester A
Montgomery County Public Schools 2014